Troubleshooting link problems in a communications network can be an inexact science. When a customer calls to report a problem with a connection, the problem may not be easily repeatable or may be sporadic in occurrence, thus inhibiting the ability to diagnose and solve the problem on the part of the communications service provider. This may lead to a situation where link problems are repeatedly called in for trouble tickets without an effective opportunity to diagnose and repair the problem. In this situation, if customers report the same problem after the problem has not been fixed, trouble tickets for the same link may appear multiple times without satisfactory resolution. In some situations, 25% or more of trouble tickets may be repeats of earlier reported problems. Repeated trouble tickets may cause unnecessary and inefficient use of service provider resources in recording, diagnosing, and repairing the same problem multiple times.
Ultimately, customers may end their relationship with the service provider if they perceive that nothing is being done to solve their problems, regardless of the fact that the service provider may be unable to diagnose the problem. Therefore, there is a need to proactively identify potential problem links in a communications network, and to analyze those links as part of an effort to diagnose and fix the problems.